Renfrewshire North & West MSP Derek Mackay has today commented on the confirmation that the cost of downgrading amenity sites at Renfrew, Erskine, Johnstone and Linwood, and then reversing the changes, will cost an estimated £281,000.

Mr Mackay wrote to the Chief Executive of Renfrewshire Council earlier this month asking for the details, after it was announced that the decision to downgrade the sites was now being reversed.

Renfrewshire Council estimated that the costs associated with the original planned changes would be £106,000.

Commenting Mr Mackay, who campaigned against the original decision to downgrade the sites, said:

“It was clear from day one that the plans to effectively close these sites was a bad one, and one in which the public was never going to accept. However, Labour pressed ahead with the plans, plans which they could have scrapped at any point. Instead their stubbornness has cost the Renfrewshire tax payer over quarter of a million pounds in closing and now re-opening the sites. Now let’s be very clear, that is a waste of £281,000 which could have been totally avoided.

“This whole fiasco was avoidable from the start and their bad management and failure to stop the changes when it became clear it was not workable has resulted in £281,000 being effectively flushed down the toilet. Labour can not keep attempting to blame the Scottish Government for their bad decisions and poor foresight, nor can they keep saying ‘just give us more money’, when they are completely wasting the money that they have got.

“Labour have been ploughing millions of pounds into their pet projects whilst starving roads and the environment of the necessary resources, partly why they ended up in such a mess over the amenity sites in the first place. A mess which has now resulted in something which was created to apparently save £150,000 a year, now costing £281,000. A complete waste of money due to bad management and poor foresight by Labour.”